NDA pushes Hindi, but curtails translation bureau’s work

NEW DELHI: At a time when the NDA government is pushing Hindi, Central Translation Bureau, one of the key institutions involved in popularizing it as administrative language, is being made to curtail its work.

CTB, part of the department of official languages under the home ministry, has surrendered 50,000 pages of translation work, stopped training staff of public sector undertakings and banks and many of its key projects have been stalled. Posts have not been filled in CTB for years resulting in 16 vacancies for technical slots.

CTB, started in 1971, is the sole government agency involved in translation of government documents, codes and procedural literature. Translation of government documents by other agencies also have to be approved by the CTB.

But early this year, CTB realized its existence was under threat when it was asked to stop translation training courses in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. CTB does three-month training programmes for government, PSU and bank officials so that Hindi can be popularized. Training programme officially ended in June. A home ministry official said, “Translation training courses of the CTB are decades old and need to be revised according to the present scenario and requirement of the users. A committee has been set-up to review and revamp the courses and training programmes have been suspended for 6 months.” More.